Crime: The origin of offenders "Crossing the ethnic logic"
to Alain Bauer, a criminologist, President of the National Observatory of crime, the issue of people from the immigration can be addressed. A certain conditions
The National Observatory of crime he intends to study the part played by people of immigrant background? Did you discuss this aspect in your work?
We discussed informally at the beginning of our work. The Centre's objective is to publish accurate information from scientific protocols clear. In this regard, one can identify
French and foreign , adults and juveniles, men and women. Other attempts based on family names, or names for the miners, led to presuppose
overrepresented some populations. Can we raise the issue peacefully? It is there a taboo for you?
can fully address the issue. Do not leave the door open to all fantasies and racist extremists. And not to approach both diagnosis and therapeutic elements. But carelessly open debate on the practical is likely to profoundly change the nature of our way of life, or trying to live together. Moreover, it could make us forget that behind the respondents there are victims, living in the same spaces, from the same countries and often comparable social status.
(...) It is a truth padlocked by Republic Act, limited by the risk of political exploitation, locked by the fear of stigma and stifled by political correctness. Children of immigrants apparently sinking into delinquency more often than other French. How calmly discuss this phenomenon? The colonial past of our country, as well as the use of racial files under the Vichy regime and, for some thirty years, the xenophobic National Front is not facilitating a rational analysis of the situation. Some voices - sociologists, criminologists, police or political - are beginning to address the issue.
Express tried to do, without taboos or ideology.
The lights are flashing, but the statistics are silent on the subject. The only distinction is authorized by the Administration in effect on nationality, not the origin. Each year,
foreigners account for about 20% of offenders . But the figures mask a reality far more disturbing, more elusive as well. Long been sought to hide, awkwardly, the overrepresentation of children of immigrants, yet visible, because they are primarily Children of France. Under the Jospin government, non-written instructions were even passed to the communication services of the police. "We were asked to mention any name, remembers a communicator of the time. It was considered too stigmatizing. "
However, the police find the field for years. And today, they are particularly worried about the aggressiveness of young Blacks who fail at school, cut off from all family landmarks. "Blacks as we challenge manifested by a violent instant, says commissioner stationed in a suburb sensitive. They are frequently involved in of robberies or thefts at the door. While the North Africans, for example, are more structured around the drug networks. "Riots in the suburbs in November 2005, have thrown in the face of the world the image of young French people of foreign origin, harassing forces order and burning cars. What
similar offenders every day? To find out, just dive into a unknown file, called
"Canonge" , which includes vital statistics, photo and physical description of those very detailed "signposted" during their placement in custody view. With this database presented to the victim, it can hope to identify her attacker. Now this software, updated in 2003, retains today, 12 ethnic "types: white-Caucasian, Mediterranean, Gypsy, Middle Eastern, North African, North African, Asian, Eurasian, Indian, Indian, mestizo-mulatto, black, Polynesian, Melanesian.
This tool is to be handled with caution. First, because even if the Canonge is legal, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberties (CNIL) forbidden to use their information for purposes other than looking for a perpetrator. Then, because it says nothing about the nationality and origin of the individual - who may be French for several generations despite a physique Mediterranean, for example. Finally, because the entries are recorded by the police officer, with the subjectivity that implies.
"I told you: there are few Gauls!"
In Paris, Canonge includes about 103 000 men, 37% white, 29% of North Africans and 19% black. Anecdotally, one Melanesian is referenced. "My attackers were between 18 and 20 years. Rather tall, of North African origin: I had no other indications to provide police, remembers a victim of aggression. I was invited to recognize the file. I put a good time: there were more than 2000 photos. "
The proportion of French people of foreign origin is even stronger among young people in some suburbs. Thus, in this county of Val-d'Oise, where over 7500 men aged 25 are listed in the file Canonge, whites make up less than 2% as well as blacks, against nearly 45% for North Africans, or 3,200 individuals. "I told you: there are few Gauls!" Says an investigator. In a large department of crown, as the Seine-et-Marne, whites make up half of the suspects. In rural departments, the rate is higher.
Reading handrails on police shows this uneven distribution. These tools identify the all-comers of delinquency: the failure to stop the theft from a vehicle, through the troubles of the neighborhood.
Express was able to see two, one in a chic district of Paris, the other in a popular area. They are not alike.
In the first case, people complain more burglaries and uproars nighttime assaults or drug trafficking. The handrail does mention a "undesired" North Africa, a homeless man born in Nigeria and the inquiry of a Russian thief, but few incidents highlight the problem of immigration. In the second case, however, we note, first, that the facts are more numerous and more serious problems brawls with assault, damaging property, threats, violence or drug use, etc. . We observe, then, that 73% of those surveyed have a foreign sounding name. Extracts.
the night, Houria is struck by his brother Samir, but parents refuse it complains. In the morning, police arrested Abdul for "threats of death and degradation of light private property. " An hour later, Said was arrested for beating and attempted to strangle his wife. In the afternoon, three individuals Izamona, Kabeya, Ibrahima, are evicted from a building lobby. They have threatened on several occasions, a resident who "begin to fear for his life." Later, Jerome, himself, was arrested for illegal use of drugs. Peter and Michael are brought to the station for having insulted and assaulted two officers of the RATP metro.
In another area, a woman, the victim of a robbery, was taken to hospital. Her attacker is "a North African, wearing square glasses, a black jacket and sneakers." Using tear gas, he has stolen his card holder and the liquid. The evening ended with many nuisance and disputes between spouses.
Notable: The majority of victims appear, too, from foreign communities. "It reflects the population of these neighborhoods," said one officer.
After the chain
the prison has long since joined the ethnic aspect. The visitor for the first time, enters a prison near Paris seen immediately. He discovered the true face of detainees: Blacks and Beurs, an overwhelming majority . "We are caught by the emergency. We need a pragmatic management, says Jean-François Forget, Secretary General of the Ufap, majority union among supervisors. It did not start today. When I was stationed at Baumettes in Marseilles, we spoke only of pizzas and pastas on the floors where the inmates were incarcerated from Italy. "At the remand of Health, in Paris, which has more 100 nationalities, ethnicities
are divided into the buildings: Europeans in block A, B, Africans, North Africans in C, etc.. A group that is often at the request of the detainee himself. sociologists, few suspected racism, started to break the taboo of the overrepresentation of youth of immigrant background in crime. Sebastian Roché, research director at the CNRS, was one of the pioneers. Nine years ago, some of his colleagues have warned that he forced the lid of a Pandora's box, that of communitarianism. He began by defining the concept of "foreign origin". Difficult task in a nation that was built at the rate of successive brews populations. The sociologist found that this origin was defined by the fact that at least one parent was born overseas or outside France.
"Is he back? The overwhelming majority of immigrant children is no problem, emphasizes Roché, who conducted several studies in Grenoble and St. Etienne. In reviewing the convictions occurred from 1985 to 2000 in the Isere, it appears that 94% of youth are considered a French citizen, but
60% are foreign-born or foreign. "Similarly, they are more often involved in "serious matters". "Analyze discrimination"
As for the explanation of the phenomenon, it is the subject of controversy among researchers. "It is primarily the result of a social position: young offenders of foreign origin are mostly children of working-class neighborhoods, the son of the families less able academically and economically more precarious," says Lawrence Mucchielli Director of the Centre for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions (Cesdip). According to studies by Roche, social origin does not explain everything. "While 80% of young offenders from North Africa have Parent workers or employees, he says.
But socio-economic equivalent, the children of immigrants are more delinquent than others. School failure and a difficult relationship to authority are critical factors. "
But how to evoke it more without cracking or assign our republican model communalism? Without a suitable measuring instrument, the French authorities remain unable to accurately estimate the phenomenon and to draw lessons. Should there be an ad hoc, which would have the interest to evaluate the police work? This is the view of Lawrence Mucchielli: "These statistics, far from endorsing or feed any racism, would be contrary to any matter relevant to analyze the discrimination against foreigners are frequent victims."
The police, who however, have been the first to give the alarm, are themselves divided. "Quit offenders, not foreigners or French," says a commissioner. "If you build a racial indicator, it will fall into the trap of discrimination and divide the French," said another. "Such a tool, based on both statistical evidence and sociological analysis, would explain a lot, think the contrary, Jean-Marie Salanova, head of the Union of commissioners and senior officials of the national police. We can not continue to ignore the phenomenon for a long time, not to condemn but to understand. What would be the way to avoid simplistic answers. "It may be a useful tool for police and for researchers, said Bruno Beschizza, general secretary of the Synergie officers. But it is for politicians to take a decision of such importance, because it must balance the pursuit of truth and the guarantee of individual freedoms, even religious. "
(...)
France, sometimes has trouble looking in the eyes.
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